Airlines Dispute Planned Air-Controller Cuts

FAA Says Sequester Forces Employee Furloughs, While Industry Argues Passengers Are Being Used as Political Pawns

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The FAA plans to eliminate about 170 towers staffed by contracted employees at small airports next month. Contract controller Annette Abplanalp is on the lookout at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport in Utah.
Reuters

Planned furloughs of air-traffic controllers that could cause major disruptions in air travel are sparking a dispute between the Federal Aviation Administration and airlines over how much discretion the agency has in making its sequester cuts.

As the Federal Aviation Administration prepares to furlough air-traffic controllers as a result of sequester cuts, the airline industry is fighting back. WSJ's Jack Nicas reports on The News Hub. Photo: REUTERS.

The FAA, which employs virtually all of the country's civilian air-traffic controllers, says the furloughs are unavoidable under mandatory federal budget cuts, and it predicts flights could be delayed by up to 90 minutes at busy airports as a result.

A high-powered panel from Washington and Wall Street discuss the on-going fiscal fracas in Washington. Doug Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum, Peter Orszag of Citigroup and Joseph LaVorgna of Deutsche Bank join Seib & Wessel.

The airline industry's leading trade group, Airlines for America, has sent a legal memo to federal officials arguing that the FAA can make the cuts without major furloughs. Representatives of several major airlines said they back the trade group's position, but declined to comment further. Two airline officials, who wouldn't be named, said in interviews they think the FAA is making fliers political pawns, as the Obama administration looks to use public backlash over flight delays to force Republicans into a budget deal.

FAA Administrator
Michael Huerta
said in a statement that "we are working to both ensure the safety of the traveling public and have the least impact possible on the largest number of people." He added, sequester law "leaves us with no other equitable option than to furlough our air-traffic controllers."

Air-traffic controllers are warning that the furloughs could force them to reduce the rate of flights arriving at big airports like Chicago's O'Hare International and Miami International by a third to a half during peak periods or bad weather. Roughly 40% of U.S. flights take off from just 10 cities.

Federal officials are making air travel "the poster child for sequestration, ensuring that the 2 million people and 50,000 tons of cargo that fly every day are impacted by projected delays caused by arbitrary cuts," said Airlines for America Chief Executive Nick Calio, who was a legislative-affairs assistant to former President
George W. Bush
.

The flight delays—coupled with expected sequester-related delays at airport security and customs checks—could make flying this summer more painful than usual.

But many in the airline industry expressed cautious optimism. "It if happens, it will be tough, but we'll manage through it," said one airline executive who declined to be named.

Details of the furloughs are still being finalized, and the FAA hasn't asked carriers to cut flights. Some airline officials said they are confident they can work with midlevel FAA managers to shift the timing of furloughs to cover the busiest periods.

The industry is somewhat upbeat because there are 13% fewer domestic flights than six years ago, and 82% of them were on time last year, compared to 73% in 2007.

The FAA has frozen hiring and, beginning on April 21, all 47,000 agency employees must take off one day per 10 work days without pay. It also plans to cut overnight shifts at more than 60 towers at medium-size airports this summer and eliminate about 170 control towers staffed by contracted employees at small airports next month.

Air-traffic controllers say furloughs will strain an already understaffed workforce, which also will have to fill gaps left by tower closures at small airports. Controllers say they will prioritize safety over efficiency, which at times will cause cascading delays through the U.S.

"We're working together to make sure safety is not going to be affected, but unfortunately, you might want to buy 'War and Peace' before you get on your next flight," said Miami controller
Jim Marinitti,
a representative of the National Air-Traffic Controllers Association, the union representing all FAA controllers.

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Jenny Dervin,
JetBlue Airways
Corp.'s
vice president of corporate communications, said the airline believes the FAA can make the necessary cuts without furloughs. "We think arbitrary budget reductions are not the answer," she said. "We know they have a nut to crack, but we believe it can be done in a very smart way that does not impact the flying public."

The airline executive who declined to be named said, "I've told people in the administration and on the hill that I believe the FAA has flexibility, but nobody seems to want to talk about it."

The sequester requires the FAA to cut $637 million, or 5% of the $12.5 billion of its annual budget that is not exempt to the sequester. Because the cuts have to be made by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 instead of over a whole year, they are closer to 10% reductions.

The sequester requires agencies to cut 5% from each nonexempt program, so the FAA must find about $370 million savings in its $7.4 billion air-traffic budget. The industry is pushing the FAA to prevent some cuts to air-traffic control by using its authority to transfer some funds from other programs within its $9.7 billion operations budget. The FAA maintains it has examined all options and concluded it can't prevent furloughs.

The industry wants the FAA to use demand to better schedule furloughs, which "could include managing furloughs on an hourly basis, as opposed to by the day," said Airlines for America spokeswoman Jean Medina. For example, she said, the agency could shave an hour off some employees' work days or make some controllers work two half-days—though such scheduling could present big logistical challenges.

The FAA said it plans to exercise all available scheduling flexibility to try to minimize flight delays.

The spat over controller cutbacks echoes a debate playing out in other areas over the implementation of the sequester, with many Republicans arguing that agencies have more discretion than they acknowledge, and the Obama administration saying the law ties its hands.

Airlines and their trade group generally split donations between Democrats and Republicans in 2008 and 2010, but it sided with Republicans in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Airlines and Republican congressmen have pushed the FAA to look for savings elsewhere, including in outside contracts or travel, and point out the FAA budget has actually increased since 2008 while air traffic has dropped.

Miami's terminal radar approach control center, or Tracon, guides airplanes from high altitude into airport approach paths and then hands them over to airport control towers. Mr. Marinitti, the Miami Tracon controller, said furloughs are going to reduce the Miami Tracon staff during its busy shifts, to 14 controllers from 18, while two of those controllers will have to monitor three small airports that will likely lose their towers to cuts.

The ideal arrival rate into Miami International is 72 aircraft per hour. At peak periods or in bad weather, "our projection is that rate will probably be cut in half," Mr. Marinitti said.

Corrections & Amplifications The sequester requires the FAA to cut $637 million of its annual budget that is not exempt to the sequester. An earlier version of this article cited an incorrect figure for required cuts of $627 million given by FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in congressional testimony.

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